Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Solitaire Nouveau

A good game to play with yourself or with others is to try to think of semi-plausible-sounding band names that aren't already taken. All you need is an Internet connection for verification purposes. Damnable Midge is a winner, but only if you accept that it's semi-plausible. Fangsong, too, though Red Fang is a "stoner metal" band from Portland, natch. The Lanterns is taken, as is just LANTERNS.

Years ago I decided that if I ever started a band (assuming I actually knew how to play an instrument, etc.), I wanted to call it The Wrong Elements.

(This was following an incident in the 1980's where James Watt, the Secretary of the Interior under Reagan, tried to ban the Beach Boys from performing at a Fourth of July concert in Washington, D.C., because, Watt said, the Beach Boys attracted "the wrong element." Watt withdrew his objections when Ronald and Nancy Reagan announced that they both liked the Beach Boys.)

As far as I can tell, from a quick check of the web, The Wrong Elements isn't taken yet, or if it is, it's below the radar.

A friend and I once speculated about the possibility of punk rockers on the planet Vulcan (the one in the Star Trek universe). We imagined a music club where Vulcan punk rockers would hang out, called the Faulty Syllogism. The club would feature a punk band called Circular Logic. (Circular Logic is taken, it turns out.)

Vulcan punk rocker kids would criticize uncool behavior by saying things like, "That's not very illogical, dude." Instead of the traditional "Live long and prosper" greeting, Vulcan punk rockers would point two fingers downward and say "Go broke and die soon."

Yeah, and teenage boys with their shirts untucked who hang out in front of the candy store snapping their fingers and saying "Daddy-O."

After the Reagans announced their support for the Beach Boys, James Watt felt obliged to hold a press conference and retract what he'd said. He stood in front of reporters holding what appeared to be a sculpture (of plaster, maybe? but a dark color) of a foot with a hole through it -- symbolic of having "shot himself in the foot" with his earlier remarks.

Difficult to imagine just how weird and off-the-deep-end some of those Reagan administration people were back then.

Is that intriguing? I do exquisite corpse & beans things like mad libbing with words gleaned at random--or with words chosen for their sound, sexiness, charisma. I use Oulipian strategies, especially N+7, do cut-ups (with paper & scissors & Tzara's hat, to make it as physical as visual art), and collage found language. I'll make two random lists of words (or again, not random but chosen for good sound or some other charm like a double z or double o) and connect them up. I'll put "earthquake" next to "pajamas" and think about "earthquake pajamas"--for just a split second, because when I do such things fast & recklessly I sometimes stumble onto emotionally true combinations & lines that are embarassing/scary, like what you leave out when you're recounting a dream to friends. Do you work this way?

I was v. disappointed a few years ago to find that the band name Harpoon Tang was taken. (A quick Google search is inconclusive re: the President and Trustees, but I imagine that this is, if not a band name, a pub.)

my problem with thinking about anything too interesting when I'm trying to fall asleep is that I don't fall asleep, but keep thinking about it. If I have trouble drifting off, I actively try to cultivate an incoherent dream state. Like I'll think about giraffes doing something impossible.